Q: What's worse that a root canal?

Coughing after having open heart bypass surgery and going for a number 1 after 6 days on a catheter. I had several root canals, prior to my open heart bypass surgery, and they didn't come close to the pain/discomfort experienced after the open heart surgery, albeit, there might be a little more discomfort during the root canal procedure but recovery is very much quicker.

Well, you never know in what direction a thread will go after you create it. I was just being humorous with the title, and didn’t expect serious responses such military service during war time, and incurable disease. So please don’t re-read those things back into my title, which was writen before those things were posted. Of course there are plenty of things worse than a root canal, but it is the cliche of many a hyperbolic turmoil... i.e. “I’d rather have a root canal than go to your mother’s house for Thanksgiving.”

By the way, I’m sitting in the waiting room as I type this.

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They have probably brought out the drilling rig by now, I hope you do as well as you possibly can and that the procedure is a complete and lasting success.

They used one of these on me last time, that ended up with my tooth being gone. The dentist was a very fair man, he charged me for the original filling, one replacement filling, and the extraction. He said that was about all he could get out of that baby!

They have probably brought out the drilling rig by now, I hope you do as well as you possibly can and that the procedure is a complete and lasting success.

They used one of these on me last time, that ended up with my tooth being gone. The dentist was a very fair man, he charged me for the original filling, one replacement filling, and the extraction. He said that was about all he could get out of that baby!

It’s a long, confusing ordeal, and I’m just about over the whole thing. The short of it is, even though I have no pain or discomfort, they want to do a procedure that has a 15% failure rate... and the correction for the failure is to cut out part of my gum.

I'm pretty sure they don't throw any of that stuff they stick in your mouth away ever. I used to envision them putting all the utensils in a basket and setting the basket in the employees restroom toilet for few hours to sterilize them.

Coughing after having open heart bypass surgery and going for a number 1 after 6 days on a catheter. I had several root canals, prior to my open heart bypass surgery, and they didn't come close to the pain/discomfort experienced after the open heart surgery, albeit, there might be a little more discomfort during the root canal procedure but recovery is very much quicker.

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I measured the catheter the nurse pulled out of me at just over twenty seven feet six inhes long.

At the dentist check up last week, the xrays showed infection (or something) in a front tooth that I originally had root canal-ed in 1991. The doc said, "Well, they must not have got all the root back then, cause there's something still left... and we gotta get it out."

This all started in 1987. I was 15. I got my braces off, and two week later I dove into shallow water and cracked several front teeth. No neck damage. I had my front two teeth completely removed in 1991 and anchors put in, and fake teeth installed. Then I had to have all of that redone in 2004.

So... here we go again. I'm expecting them to find more stuff to have to deal with once they get into it. They always do. I haven't had any pain from this at all. Yet.

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Apparently you haven't had a root canal in years. Now days there is ZERO pain with a good dentist. I didn't even feel the first needle of novocain and had no pain later. AMAZING

I've had a lot of tooth problems. If i can give any advice it would be to use a good/best endodontist you can find, not a regular dentist. Regular dentists just can't usually fix it right. Even if you have to pay yourself it's worth the cost. Get references too.

Lots of nasty examples here. I’ve lost count of my root canals. I discovered my current dentist of 30 years during a Saturday night he was on call. I’d been chewing on ice since Friday looking for relief. My Doc was fresh out of dental school, low man in his clinic and on Call that weekend. No anithiesia, just drill it open to relieve the pressure. Puss explosion, his wife assisted and about gaged from the smell. I still go to him now.

Worse than a root canal? I’d say peritonitis of the bowel. Hospital for a week and a drain and PICC IV for 6 weeks.

My first molar on the top left side I had RC'ed back about 15 years ago has gone bad.

Dentist I have now said he never does that tooth. Said 10% of his procedures failed, and of those 90% were that tooth. I've had infections twice cleared up with antibiotics. Next step is oral surgery- extraction, bone prep (bone graft and implant), then an artificial tooth.

My dental plan won't cover this ($3000+), so I'm going to try and get by until the next flare up. Find a surgeon who will let me make payments and bite the bullet (pun intended).

The local anesthetic wore off just as they were putting in the final stitch during my vasectomy. It felt like a hot nail going through my bag... I said, "Hey, I feel that..." and the doctor responded, "That's okay, we're almost done." That's okay????